Support enhanced for 3D CAD files and Product Manufacturing Information
MARLBOROUGH, MA—March 27, 2024—Kubotek Kosmos, a leader in engineering and manufacturing geometric software technology, today announced the 6.0 major release of its CAD/CAM software interoperability products: Validate, Revision, Convert, and View. These CAD file utility programs utilize proprietary Kubotek Kosmos modeling technology to support transfer of precise CAD data across the manufacturing supply chain. Version 6 updates support for major CAD files, improves performance, and adds capabilities for Product Manufacturing Information (PMI) data used in Model Based Definition (MBD) workflows. The new software is available for customers to download immediately.
Updated CAD File Support
To ensure customers are prepared for any CAD files sent to them, reading of 3D CAD files across all Kubotek Kosmos software programs has been updated to support new versions of eight major MCAD file formats:
- Autodesk Inventor 2024
- Dassault Systemes (DS) CATIA V5 R2024x
- DS SolidWorks 2024
- DS Spatial ACIS 2024
- PTC Creo 10.0
- Siemens Digital Industries Software (SDIS) NX 2306
- SDIS Solid Edge 2024
- SDIS Parasolid V36
Version 6 adds support for all versions of the Mastercam file formats to read precise 3D solids and surfaces from .MCAM and .MCX files. Reading of CKD files has also been extended to support the KeyCreator 2024 format in the Validate and Revision products.
File read capabilities for all native CAD and STEP have been enhanced to support transparency properties stored on faces/bodies in the model. This improves visualization of interior portions of the model and a closer match to how the model looks in its originating system. Additionally, access to properties metadata for each CAD file has been added to the user interface.
The capability of the Convert product to write models to standard CAD formats has been significantly expanded in version 6. Export of Parasolid X_T files has been enhanced to allow control of the version of Parasolid used in the output file, in order to support older applications. (The Parasolid format is important because it acts as the native B-Rep solid/surface format of popular products such as SolidWorks, NX, Solid Edge, and Mastercam.) Additionally, export of solid/surface, point, and curve objects to the JT file format has been added to the Convert 6.0 Premium package. The JT format is a published ISO standard file format used for lightweight visualization data and also as a container for B-Rep solid/surface data closely related to Parasolid.
MBD PMI Enhancements
The Kubotek Kosmos Validate product verifies and documents accurate movement of MBD data through supplier processes and systems. The product is able to quickly read the structure of complex 3D CAD models and PMI from all major MCAD file types. Version 6 includes improved support for PMI objects to assure full semantic associativity of these critical tolerance-type annotations to faces of the part model. Comparison between translated files now alerts users to inconsistencies in model connectivity of these PMI objects, even when they are graphically correct.
View and Convert products gain support for user-defined view orientation and world coordinate axis marker metadata objects stored in native 3D CAD files. For example, in the user interface CATIA V5 Named Views are now added to the views list pull-down and CATIA V5 Axis Systems are added to the part tree. Support for both of these data types allow users to quickly set the 3D display view to match this imported PMI data.
Performance Enhancements
The 6.0 release adds full support for high-resolution displays (4K+) across all four products. Users benefit from noticeably crisper model edges/lines and cleaner text in the graphics display area.
File opening in the View, Convert, and Revision applications has been further optimized. Testing with a suite of customer files confirmed load times are 40% faster on average than version 5. View and Convert products also provide an option for reading just mesh data from 3D CAD files for further significant gains when opening files for viewing.
Free trials of Kubotek Kosmos software are available. Kubotek Kosmos is also seeking referral partners and qualified resellers for these products.